Microgaza rotella

Microgaza rotella
Drawing of a shell of Microgaza rotella
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Clade: Vetigastropoda
Superfamily: Trochoidea
Family: Solariellidae
Genus: Microgaza
Species: M. rotella
Binomial name
Microgaza rotella
Dall, 1881 [1]
Synonyms
  • Callogaza rotella Dall, 1881
  • Eumargarita rotella (Dall, 1881)

Microgaza rotella is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Solariellidae.[2]

Subspecies

Description

The depressed shell is small and grows to a length of 6.8 mm. It has five whorls, somewhat flattened above and below. The nucleus is small, translucent white, and with the two first whorls polished. The nucleus is smooth or marked only by faint growth lines. The remainder of the whorls show a narrow puckered band revolving immediately below the suture, on which the shell matter is as it were pinched up into slight elevations at regular intervals, about half a millimeter apart. In some specimens, outside of this band an impressed line revolves with the shell. The remainder is smooth, shining or with evanescent traces of revolving lines impressed from within and strongest about the rounded periphery. The base of the shell is rounded toward the umbilical carina over which it seems to be drawn into flexuously radiating well-marked plications (about thirty-two on the last turn). These plications disappear a third of the way toward the periphery. The wall of the umbilicus is concave, overhung by the carina. The turns of the shell are so coiled that the part of each whorl uncovered by its successor forms a narrow spiral plane ascending to the apex like a spiral staircase or screw thread. The thin columella is straight and lacks a callus. The aperture is rounded except at the angle of the umbilical carina. The margin is thin, sharp, not reflected or thickened. There is no callus on the body whorl in the aperture.

The shell is whitish or greenish. The nacre is less brilliant in dead or deep-water specimens. The shell shows zigzag brown lines variously transversely disposed and disappearing on the base.[3]

Distribution

This species occurs in the following locations:[2]

References

  1. ↑ Dall, W. H. 1881. Reports on the results of dredging, under the supervision of Alexander Agassiz, in the Gulf of Mexico, and in the Caribbean Sea, 1877-79, by the United States Coast Survey Steamer 'Blake. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 9: 33-144.
  2. 1 2 Bouchet, P.; Rosenberg, G. (2012). Microgaza rotella. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=419439 on 2012-12-03
  3. ↑ Tryon (1889), Manual of Conchology XI, Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia
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